Avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties is of paramount importance to entities

Avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties is something a Covered Entity or a Business Associate has to treat as an issue of foremost importance. Something like 120 million individuals were affected by HIPAA breaches in 2015, highlighting the extent to which breaches can happen, and also the extent to which medical records are targeted. It is said that medical records command a higher price today in the black market than social security numbers and credit cards!

In the two decades since the creation of HIPAA, over $ 50 million have been levied as fines or penalties. This is why Covered Entities and Business Associates need to do everything they can towards avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties. The government is very serious about protecting healthcare records. It has repeatedly nudged the HHS to take the increased incidence of cyberattacks resulting in medical records theft very seriously and increase vigilance.

The HHS is hell bent upon enforcing HIPAA requirements

Phase 2 HIPAA audits are now underway, underscoring the need for the increased need for Covered Entities and Business Associates to devise ways of avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties. The basis to avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties is to get a clear and thorough understanding of HIPAA compliance requirements expected of a healthcare provider.

Why avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties rests on a clear understanding of how to put policies and procedures in place to ensure HIPAA compliance is that HIPAA compliance goes hand in hand with providing the appropriate patient rights and controls on its uses and disclosures of PHI.

Two aspects come into play if an organization that is being audited or is the subject of a compliance review has to avoid HIPAA fines and penalties. The first of these is to demonstrate to the HHS that it has the ability to demonstrate the way by which it addresses all of the required security safeguards. Two, the organization has to also have the documentation of the proper policies and procedures necessary for safeguarding patient PHI if it has to avoid HIPAA fines and penalties.

Get to understand the dynamics of HIPAA compliance for avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties

Avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties is not something that happens by chance. An organization cannot shoot in the dark and hope to get its HIPAA compliance right. If Covered Entities and Business Associates have to get their HIPAA implementation right; they need professional guidance on how to accomplish this. Given the cost of noncompliance; avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties is something all organizations have to strive to aim for.

How do they do it? This is the learning a webinar from MentorHealth, a leading provider of professional trainings for the healthcare industry, will be offering. Jay Hodes, who is President and Founder, Colington Security Consulting, LLC, will be the speaker at this highly valuable webinar on avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties. In order to learn how to avoid HIPAA fines and penalties and to benefit from the vast experience at HIPAA compliance that the speaker carries; please enroll for this webinar by visiting http://www.mentorhealth.com/control/w_product/~product_id=800900LIVE/?Wordpress-SEO

An explanation of what to do in order to avoid HIPAA fines and penalties

At this session, Jay will show how an organization can aim at avoiding HIPAA fines and penalties by just being compliant with the HIPAA requirements. He will show how a Business Associate or Covered Entity can provide the appropriate patient rights and controls on its uses and disclosures of Protected Health Information (PHI) and what all it has to have in place for doing so.

The way an organization that is the subject of a compliance review or is being audited needs to show to the HHS both the documentation necessary for safeguarding patient PHI, as well as the ability to show how it is addressing all of the required security safeguards if it has to avoid HIPAA fines and penalties will be explained at this webinar.

At this session, Jay will cover the following areas:

• Why was HIPAA created?
• Who Must Comply with HIPAA Requirements?
• What are the HIPAA Rules?
• Who Enforces HIPAA?
• Enforcement Case Examples
• Learning from Other’s Mistakes
• What are the penalties and fines for non-compliance and how to avoid them?
• Being Prepared for a HIPAA Audit or Investigation
• Questions

 

 

 

Health care boards –an overview

Health care boards are an important element of healthcare governance. These health care boards have oversight of a number issues relating to governance. The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has tightened the oversight functions of health care boards by holding them responsible for any fraud that happens in the healthcare sector. Its Strike Force has been entrusted the responsibility of tracking healthcare frauds, wherever they happen, even if it is into corporate boardrooms that and executive suites that they have to intrude.

Towards ensuring that health care boards carry out their functions, the US department of Health and Human Services (HHS)’ Office of Inspector General (OIG) released its guidance for health care boards, called the Practical Guidance for Health Care Governing Boards on Compliance Oversight in April 2015. This guidance document is a comprehensive one and addresses all the areas of work for health care boards, ranging from expectations from health care boards to compliance program functions, to auditing potential risks to guiding ways by which health care boards need to ensure accountability and compliance.

An understanding of the functions and responsibilities of health care boards

A good and clear understanding of health care boards is necessary for a host of professionals such as Governing Board Members, Trustees and Directors, healthcare executives, In-House Counsel, and CFO’s and HR professionals in the healthcare industry. MentorHealth, a highly regarded provider of professional trainings for the healthcare industry, will offer just this at a webinar that it is organizing

At this webinar, Joseph Wolfe, an attorney with Hall, Render, Killian, Heath & Lyman, P.C., who provides advice and counsel to some of the nation’s largest health systems, hospitals and medical groups on a variety of health care issues; will be the speaker. To register for this learning session, just log on to http://www.mentorhealth.com/control/w_product/~product_id=800933LIVE/?Wordpress-SEO

Legal standards and governance issues in health care boards

A discussion of the legal standards and governance issues related to the compliance and oversight responsibilities of health care boards will be the core theme of this webinar. Offering an overview of the major fraud and abuse laws applicable to healthcare organizations; Joseph will explain the ways by which to apply them under common arrangements with physicians, so directors can ask appropriate questions.

This webinar on health care boards will educate its participants on a number of legal standards and governance issues such as director duties, conflicts of interest, intermediate sanctions, compliance issues, etc., which are directly related to the board’s compliance and oversight responsibilities.

Healthcare organizations come into common arrangements with physicians, during which they need to keep aspects such as:

• Physician practice acquisitions
• Employment
• Recruitment
• Call coverage agreements, and many others.

During the course of working out these agreements, they need to be compliant with the provisions of the existing important fraud and abuse laws such as the Stark Law.  At this webinar on health care boards, the speaker will also provide an overview of these major laws and the ways by which healthcare organizations need to apply these laws.

Asking the right questions

In a scenario in which healthcare organizations seek to bring about alignment and expansion of their physician relationships; a good understanding of these laws will help governing boards ask the right questions.

With health care governing boards assuming oversight of new functions such as physician compensation arrangements and with many physicians being directly employed; these issues are becoming an increasingly important responsibility for healthcare organizations. This webinar will offer insight into compensation-focused compliance and board oversight strategies, implementing which; healthcare organizations can mitigate regulatory risk.

At this important session on health care boards, the speaker, Joseph Wolfe will cover the following areas:

• A review of the fiduciary duties and other legal aspects of serving on the governing board
• Offering a general overview of the Stark Law and other fraud and abuse laws applicable to financial relationships with referring physicians, including a discussion of recent enforcement trends
• Describing the features of common financial arrangements with referring physicians
• A discussion of emerging compensation-focused compliance strategies and best practices.